Vintage Inspired Save the Date

Ballerina Themed Baby Shower

I had the awesome pleasure to design for a ballerina themed baby shower. It was all about pink, polka dots, stripes, and (of course) ballet slippers. It was so much fun to do and made me wonder why I haven't had a ballerina themed party for Baby Girl yet! Maybe that'll be for birthday number four? We'll see!

Here's to a perfectly pink party for an almost-ready-for-her-debut baby girl!

Our Little Man

...is not so little. I realized this when I put up the pictures for his birthday timeline banner thing. He was a little baby man for maybe a month and then he just got big. He's just big. Not as big as Cousin Ponchito who turned one in May and is basically a man already, but Baby Dos is super big in comparison to his not-so-big sister.

Anyway, we took him to get shot...by a camera people!...at the park the week of his first birthday and they are so cute! If anyone is looking for someone who can do some of the most natural pictures of you, baby, family, events, etc., then give this lovely lady a call: Sara Lucero Photography. Gorgeous, all of her pictures and she's pretty dang swell herself along with her little family. Head over to her site. You will not be disappointed.

I loved all the pictures, but she got a sequence of pictures of Baby Dos going down the slide and I don't think she realized all that she captured.

Photo by Sara Lucero

Photo by Sara Lucero

Photo by Sara Lucero

There are sooooo many people who know and love our children. It overwhelms me every time when I think about all the faces that have smiled at them. There have been many hands that have held them and changed their diapers. This series of pictures portrays that it takes more than one set of hands to raise a child. For our children, consistently, it has been my hands, Pastor Husband's hands, and my mom's hands a.k.a. Ga. God's love is so present in these photos that I try to think about them during the times that I am anything, but content with the circumstances that are surrounding me.

Ga has been coming over every Tuesday since Baby Girl was born and she'll be three in September! When Ga is here Baby Dos doesn't even need me to exist so that's when I run around town doing errands, reading at Starbucks, or just getting stuff done around the house. I love that she was included in the photos because she has such a huge part in my kiddos' life. My sisters and I were raised super close to our grandparents and I am so thankful my kids are getting the same.

So, thank you Sara for the fun time at the park, beautiful pictures, and for finally meeting you and your precious family. Thank you all who have loved our children. Thank you Ga for being so present in their lives. Thank you Lord, above all things, for Pastor Husband, Baby Girl, and Baby Dos...and for Future Babes!

School is In

I thought pregnancy, birthing, and baby rearing was a whole world that I had no understanding of, but adoption!

Oh-me-oh-my!

Pastor Husband and I had our first class today. We actually can do them in any order so we completed Module 2 and will do Module 1 and 3-6 in November, if all goes according to plan. That was the first conflict in my mind - going to the classes out of order. I'm a very Type A personality and there is just a certain organized, specific order to life and I feel very put out when things go out of order or there is a sudden change in plans. If I've planned for this, this, and this and then that, that, and that happens...oh goodness! We all better pray for patience. This is why afternoon nap is never missed and I don't care if sleep actually happens, but my kiddos are in their room for quiet time for at least an hour. Mom needs her hour.

Anyway, the other conflict, which has been there and has now amplified due to the class is the conflict with the birth parent(s). Now, open adoption is not a must. The choice is ours was reiterated, but the goal (also reiterated) is reunification.

My mission is to provide a permanent home to a child - baby specifically - who is not being cared for as God's child.

How do I get my heart to understand that I'm to love a baby fully and love their birth parent(s) fully?

How do I pray to adopt a baby and pray for their birth parent(s) to make the changes they need to make so they can be reunited with their baby?

Sitting here, thinking about all of this, I feel queasy. I think of my own children and how devastating it would be to not have them anymore and to think there was someone out there who had them and wanted to keep them from me. Is that what these birth parents feel?

There was a couple there who had fostered 11 babies in three years! Eleven in three years! I told them they were so incredibly strong. I think I would shatter to pieces if it happened once, but they said you cannot think "this baby is mine" or "this is the one that will stay" because you just never know until it's completely finalized.

It's all in God's hands. My prayers start now for letting go of control, for peace for any surprises coming our way, and to love babies/birth parents the without restriction.